The present invention relates to the cleaning of a connector for use with a medical device implanted within an animal; or, more particularly, for use with a connector that is attached to a ventricular assist device (“VAD”) and implantable within a living body.
The heart is sometimes incapable of providing sufficient pumping capacity to meet the needs of the body. The effects of this inadequacy can be alleviated by providing a VAD with a mechanical pump adapted to supplement the pumping action of the heart. The pump, like all other elements of the VAD, preferably has the ability to be implanted in a living body for an extended period of time while the patient is awaiting a suitable donor for a heart transplant.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,575,423, 7,976,271, 8,007,254, and 8,419,609, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, disclose certain rotary blood pumps which can be used as ventricular assist devices. These pumps are electrically powered. Typically, these and other electrically powered implantable pumps are connected through a cable or wire (either being a “driveline”) to a control device that supplies electric power to the pump and controls its operation. The control device must usually provide continuous electric power over the driveline. This power must be provided at relatively high current (0.5-2.0 Amps) and moderate voltage (3-40 Volts) for extended periods of time, such as years or decades, without losing electrical continuity or creating resistive heat losses that would cause physiological complications.
Each driveline may have one or more electrical connectors. For example, one end of the driveline may be attached to an electrical connector while the other end is attached to the control device. Multiple connector types may be used. For example, an exemplary set of male and female connectors is disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/093,208 (the “'208 Application), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Each of these connectors has a contact portion arranged to transmit electricity through the driveline when aligned with a corresponding contact portion on another mating connector. The male contact portion is on a connector shaft; whereas the female contact portion is in a connector bore.
For the VAD to perform effectively over time, the respective contact portions of each connector must remain free of contaminants such as interstitial fluid or blood. The risk of contamination is greatest during the initial implantation procedure and any subsequent replacement or upgrade procedures. For example, a connector may be moved through a tunnel in the body during one of these procedures. The contact portion of the connector may become contaminated by contacting blood in the tunnel. Because the connector may still be attached to an implanted control device, these contaminants must be typically removed in the operating room during the procedure. A technician is usually present to manually clean the contacts and document the cleaning.
These manual efforts can be very time consuming. This additional time increases the risk of unwanted complications by keeping the patient in surgery and medicated longer than might otherwise be required. Moreover, this additional time also increases the cost of the procedure by requiring every other member of the surgical team, including the operating surgeon, to stand by while the technician manually cleans the connector and documents the cleaning. If more than one implanted connector must be cleaned, which is often the case, then the amount of idle time will be increased proportionately. To alleviate these concerns, the technician may need to work in a rapid fashion, thereby increasing the risk of implanting an imperfectly cleaned connector. These additional time pressures may also render it difficult to control and document the cleaning.
The aforementioned concerns are not limited to medical procedures. Numerous other technologies also utilize similar connectors and drivelines to transmit electricity between electrical devices and control elements within a contaminant laden environment. For example, the respective contact portions of many connectors designed for aviation, marine, or other outdoor use must also remain free of contaminants, such as dirt, saltwater and living organisms. Furthermore, the safety and uptime requirements associated with these uses may also necessitate similar cleaning and documentation efforts, either of which can be similarly frustrated by time pressures.
Further improvements are required.